Complications
by Nilladriel
Summary: [NejiNaru] Neji more or less confesses, and Naruto does not take it well. Angst ensues.
1. 1: it

_Expect updates to be sporadic. Also, I'd like to warn any potential readers ahead of time that there isn't much plot, although there is a worrying amount of oh-woe-he-doesn't-love-me angst and why-did-I-DO-that!? angst and actually it's more wangst than angst but I hope you enjoy it anyway._

_The next chapter will be uploaded sometime next week (or maybe sometime next month, or sometime next year; who knows?) and won't be quite as depressingly short._

_I am not quite sure why I am starting this right before NaNoWriMo, but there you go._

**Complications  
**by Nilladriel

**1: it**

It—whatever _it _was—had first started just outside of Leaf Village's strong walls. The moon had been full and bright, and the night had been darkly gentle. It had been a little warm, but that was fine; there had been a breeze, swift and cool.

It had been a very romantic night, if you ignored the mud that had stuck to Neji's face and hands and clothes, and the way Naruto's clothes had been torn and stained and made more of holes than actual fabric. After all, they'd decided to have an impromptu sparring session, not because they really wanted to but because midnight had been creeping up, and neither had been able to sleep, and they'd been bored, and there was nothing else to do with a fellow ninja you happened to bump into in the middle of the night.

After, they'd sat under a tree scarred with kunai and burns, and there had been no conversation at all. Neji's mind had been a mess; he had not been able to concentrate at all (and later he would swear to himself that that was the only reason Naruto had been able to bruise him). He looked at Naruto often, and then would remember himself and look away. Not that it mattered. Naruto's bright eyes had been fixed solely on the moon, a queer, pensive expression on his face.

Neji sat there for what seemed like hours, gathering his courage which, after years of helping him through life-and-death situations, had fled and was now whimpering somewhere in the corners of his mind. Finally he'd just thought, _Fuck it, _(except far, far more eloquently of course) and had leaned over and kissed Naruto square on the lips.

Well, all right. He'd lost his nerve at the last moment—er, that is, he'd missed, and he hadn't really kissed Naruto on the lips, but rather that area where lips meet cheek, but Naruto had gotten the idea all the same. His yelp had made that obvious.

And that was when _it _had started. Neji really wasn't sure what it was, except that it seemed to involve a lot of awkward looks and flushing and pretending that the not-quite-kiss hadn't happened at all, nope, _not at all_.

Not at all.


	2. 2: not quite a confession

**Complications  
**by Nilladriel

**2: not quite a confession**

He woke up with sunlight on his face, and that was funny, because his room faced the sunset, not the dawn. And then he realized he was staring up at a too-white ceiling, and that the walls were obnoxiously white, too, except for a stain in the corner, and _that _looked suspiciously like blood.

And there were flowers by his bed, and Neji wasn't girly enough to have _flowers _in his room. All this, he finally decided, meant he was in a hospital room. He hated hospital rooms; he spent far too much time in them, sometimes with his body screaming in agony and once, after encountering a really nasty ninjutsu, with his _mind _screaming in agony, and oh, that had been _hell_.

The girls of Rookie 9 (and he still didn't quite understand how he and Lee and Ten-Ten belonged to the Rookie 9) had probably brought the flowers to him together. They'd taken to doing _everything _together lately, and had even begun to giggle in tandem. Still, he appreciated the flowers. It was nice to see some color in the room.

Neji could hear people approaching—two of them. Their voices were familiar. Visitors?

One was Sakura. He could tell because she was yelling, and he knew no one else that could yell as loud as her. "Honestly!" she yelled-screamed-ranted. "I don't _believe _you! You haven't visited even _once_, have you?"

And then the door was slammed open, and Neji realized with horror that Sakura had been yelling at _Naruto_.

Neji looked at Naruto, and Naruto looked at Neji, and awkward silence filled the room.

And then Sakura shoved Naruto forward. "Go on," she said, her voice as commanding as the Hokage's. "I don't know what went on between you two, but I want you to _fix it_."

She put her hands on her hips and glared at them both—first Neji, as if _he _was at fault, and then Naruto, who definitely was. "I," she said, like an executioner declaring a sentence, "am going to get a drink."

The poor door was slammed again.

Naruto stood in front of it, looking like an angry, embarrassed child. His face was red. Neji's, thankfully, wasn't.

"Look," Naruto said finally, "I—"

Neji was tired of looking up at Naruto. "Sit down," he interrupted, and after a shocked moment Naruto did. The little wooden stool groaned a little under his weight.

"Look," Naruto began again, "I—that night, when you—"

"When I kissed you?" Neji said, and was surprised at how cold his voice was. In the last two months he'd been distant to Naruto, yes, and had had a disturbing urge to blush and play with his fingers as Hinata did, but he'd never been _cold_. Awkward, yes, and embarrassed, but not _cold_.

"Yeah." Naruto looked taken aback. "When you, um, kissed me." A pause. Neji stared resolutely at his hands, which were tightly clenched. "What..."

Neji waited. Naruto didn't continue, so after a while Neji looked up. The blond ninja looked horribly awkward, and his ears were red. He looked angry at himself, and would probably have been relieved if the ground had decided to swallow him up.

And suddenly Neji just felt _tired_. Tired of the feelings that welled up in him every time Naruto looked at him, tired of the way he suddenly felt like his skin was too tight every time Naruto was in the same room, tired of the rush of love-gratitude-respect that tangled up his guts and left his head feeling light.

He shouldn't have tried to kiss Naruto. He should have just sat there and—and admired the moon, or something.

"I meant nothing by it," Neji said, and closed his eyes. He felt _old_. All he needed was an aching back and a cane and a lawn to yell children off. "When I... kissed you." Attempted to kiss you. "I meant nothing by it."

"Yeah, right," Naruto said.

Neji glared at him. "I meant nothing by it," he repeated, and cold was creeping again into his voice.

Naruto looked at him—a long, hard, accusing stare. "Yeah, right," he repeated. "Saying it again isn't gonna make it true."

Neji snorted.

"You can't just—pretend it didn't happen," Naruto said.

"I'm not," Neji said. "I'm saying it didn't matter."

"It _did _matter," Naruto snapped, and Neji's eyes widened slightly. Naruto sounded _offended_. "It matters because obviously it meant something to you, and you shouldn't try and act like it never happened, and even if you did it's not like it would just—unhappen! Things don't work out that way, and you know it!"

He was yelling. Neji counted to ten, and then said, "So—what? We agree the... kiss... happened. And then what?" He sneered.

That night, when he'd not-quite brushed his lips against Naruto's, he'd felt like he'd taken destiny into his own hands. Apparently he'd forgotten that destiny could turn around and bite him in the ass.

"What did you mean by it, really?" Naruto asked, and amazingly his voice was quiet.

"I..." Neji stopped. A hospital was hardly the place to confess his love, and he wasn't even sure he loved Naruto. So he settled for, "I like you." _A lot._

"Alright," Naruto said uncomfortably.

"So I..."

Neji stopped again. They were ninja. Actions spoke louder than words. They connected best on the battle-field, when life faded away and death ruled, when the world became blood and sweat and sharp, sharp metal, when everything and nothing could be communicated with a simple gesture or a slight narrowing of the eyes.

He had healed his and Hinata's relationships by choosing to spar with her, and told Lee that yes, they were still friends and rivals by beating him into the dirt. He respected Gai the most when his former teacher was grinning a half-mad grin and showing that his awful green suit wasn't the only reason he was the Green Beast of Leaf. And he knew Ten-Ten best when she was pulling forth a scroll, eyes shining, and summoning enough kunai to make him hope he would end the day with all his limbs intact.

But he couldn't explain all this to Naruto, somehow. His words had always been proper, but he'd never been particularly eloquent. He couldn't explain that a kiss had seemed better than an awkward confession—not, he thought dryly, that the kiss hadn't been awkward.

Naruto was still looking at him, and waiting.

Neji was aware that he was blushing. "I," he began again, voice soft, "like you. So I kissed you."

It was simple enough logic. Naruto nodded, and then suddenly looked uncomfortable again.

"Neji," he said, almost gently but mostly not. "You know I don't like you, um, _that _way, right?"

_I know, _Neji thought. And truthfully he'd known that Naruto was definitely straight. After all, Naruto's most famous jutsu after his favorite Shadow Clone technique was Sexy no Jutsu. But he'd _hoped_...

"You made it more than obvious," he said.

"I'm sorry," Naruto said.

He felt tired all over again. "Don't be."

There was another pause. "We're still friends, right?" Naruto said, and Neji's heart ached. Naruto sounded like a... like a puppy that was about to be abandoned and was looking up at its owner with begging, soft brown eyes.

"Still friends," he agreed immediately, and Naruto sighed, relieved.

Sakura entered then, a strange expression on her face. Neji suddenly had the suspicion that she'd been listening outside the door. He wondered if she'd gone anywhere at all. After all, she hadn't returned with any drinks.

He couldn't summon the energy to glare at her, though. So he just stared at the wall with a carefully blank gaze while Sakura firmly clasped Naruto's wrist and took him out the door.

The sunlight was warm on his face, but Neji felt cold.

* * *

Neji was released later that day. He'd been slammed through multiple boulders, if he remembered correctly, but it was nothing that the medic-nin hadn't been able to fix, and he felt fine, although Ten-Ten had given him a _look_ when he'd told her this and barked out a laughing "Yeah _right_!" that had abruptly reminded Neji of Naruto.

His argument-confession-agreement with Naruto had left him feeling... empty. He declined Lee's exuberant offer to treat him to dinner, which led to his rival-friend thinking he'd done something wrong, and he'd escaped Lee's attempts to cheer him up pretty quickly. Thankfully, Lee wasn't _that _dense, and although he probably would have been able to track Neji down, he didn't.

The moon wasn't as full as it'd been on _that _night, but it was as bright as ever. Neji closed his window; that way he wouldn't have to see it.

And then he sulked. There really wasn't any other word for it. He sat on his bed in his room and _sulked_.

There was an attempt to study his scrolls, but he couldn't concentrate; he tried to do a few simple exercises—there was space enough in his room—but after a while he gave up.

He was—confused and hurt and resigned, but most of all he was angry. Angry at himself for trying to kiss Naruto, angry at thinking that anything would ever happen, and most of all—

Most of all he was angry at himself for even liking Naruto. For... loving him. For falling in love.

For _hoping_.

"Neji?" a soft voice spoke, and Neji started.

"Hinata," he said stiffly. "Come in."

Hinata entered. She stopped and looked around the room, and Neji had to suppress a snort. She always seemed surprised when she entered his room, as if she hadn't seen it a hundred times before. He didn't understand why.

She had a tray with her, and she put it down onto the desk. There were two cups of tea on it, as well as a bowl of rice and chopsticks and a little dish of fish. Neji realized with a start that he'd missed dinner.

She pulled his chair out and sat in it, and then looked at him.

"I thought you might be hungry," she said, simply and solemnly. The effect was rather ruined by the way she kept fidgeting, and the way her eyes would sometimes dart to the ceiling or wall or windows, but she'd gotten much better at controlling her expression.

"Thank you," Neji said. He got up and crossed the room and picked up the cups of tea; one he handed to Hinata, and the other he took with him when he sat back down onto the bed.

They drank in silence for a while, Hinata looking out the window and Neji studying Hinata. There was an anxious expression on her face, and he had a suspicion as to what, exactly, she was going to talk to him about.

He was proven right.

"I heard from Sakura," she said carefully, "that you tried to confess your feelings to Naruto and that it didn't go very well."

Neji stared at her. _Confess his feelings? _All he'd done was try to _kiss _the damn fool—

Unless Sakura really _had _been eavesdropping. He made a mental note to kill her. Later.

"Neji," she said, noticing his expression and wincing, "do you... um, do you love Naruto?"

He said nothing. They were like brother and sister again, and he'd held her in his arms while she cried more than once, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to say _yes, I love him, _and he told himself that maybe it was because he didn't.

Naruto's voice spoke up in his head then, a fresh memory: _Yeah, right._

Neji sipped his tea and resolutely said nothing.

"Neji?" Hinata asked. He was only half-surprised by her persistence. "Do you love Naruto?"

"I don't know," he said finally.

"Neji," Hinata said again, and her gaze was sad. She put her tea down and looked at him. "I'm sorry."

Naruto had said that, too, he thought.

Hinata went on looking at him with a sad gaze, as if his crush not reciprocating his feelings was the worst thing in the world—and there were children starving and people being murdered and such, wasn't there? And then she stood up and hugged him. He didn't hug back, his back straight and his shoulders stiff, but he didn't push away, either.

"Make sure you eat," she told him, and walked out of the room. Neji stared after her with a bemused expression on his face.

* * *

The next day found Neji waiting outside the hospital. He was leaning against a convenient tree, and passerby's gave him curious looks. Neji ignored them.

He didn't have to wait long; Sakura came out soon enough. She gave him a surprised look, and slight wariness crossed her features. "Neji," she said. "Good afternoon." Apparently deciding this sounded too formal, she added, "And, uh, hey."

"Sakura," he greeted her. "Would you like to walk with me for a while?"

"Sure," Sakura agreed, and that wary look returned. They walked in silence at first, Sakura adjusting her hitai-ate. Her gloves peeked out of her pocket, and they reminded Neji not to get _too _offensive; this was a woman who could shatter walls.

"You told Hinata about my and Naruto's..." He searched for a word, and then: "About our discussion," he said finally.

There was a pause. She looked guilty. "Um... yes?" she ventured.

He stopped, crossed his arms, and looked at her. "Why?"

She tugged on her skirt, her face fast matching the color of her hair. "It slipped out," she admitted.

"It slipped out," he repeated, and _stared_.

"She knew anyway," Sakura said, sounding defensive.

Now Neji just looked blank, so Sakura felt obligated to explain. "Well, she didn't _really _know," she said. "But she'd already guessed at it. You're mad, aren't you."

The stare returned. Sakura laughed a little at that, and Neji was surprised until he remembered she was used to Sasuke.

"I'm sorry for listening," she said. "I wasn't going to, I promise. But then you said you'd _kissed _him, and, um, well... that doesn't help my case any, does it," she finished, noticing his expression.

Neji closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again. "It was a... private matter," he said.

Sakura blushed again. "I know!" she said. "I just—well—I couldn't believe—_you_, in love with _Naruto_!"

Neji wasn't sure what to feel at that, so he just decided on angry. He could do angry. He'd done it for the first half of his life.

"I won't tell anyone else," Sakura promised. "But, you know, everybody's already figured it out. But I won't tell, anyway. Okay?"

* * *

Neji woke up the next day to find that _everybody knew_.

* * *

Ten-Ten gave him _looks_ that were bewildered and confused and pitying all at once. Lee kept trying to drag him off to train or eat. Gai gave him pensive, thoughtful looks that were down-right _disturbing_.

Neji thought that maybe he would kill Sakura sooner rather than later.


	3. 3: start

_I wasn't kidding when I said this chapter would be -100 words long._

_Sorry._

_But if it helps, I'm in the middle of editing the next chapter right now._

**Complications  
**by Nilladriel

**3: start**

Neji remembered the exact moment he'd fallen in love with Naruto.

It was when he'd lay dying after his fight with the web-making freak from Sound. Maybe all the blood-loss had been getting to his head. Maybe the fear and exhilaration and the sheer feeling of victory had made him a little crazy. Maybe being near-death invited mad thoughts into ninja's heads.

His mind, for some insane reason, had conjured up Naruto. And he'd thought something, although he wasn't sure what. It had been the kind of thought that is not exactly made of words, and not exactly an image, and not exactly a confused bundle of feelings. It had just been... a thought.

It didn't matter _what _he'd thought. What was important was the _moment_, the feeling of his heart skipping a beat (which had probably been disastrous, considering his condition then) and deciding that it wanted to belong to Naruto.

Neji made it a point to avoid brushing death as closely as he had that day. The results, obviously, were disastrous.


	4. 4: not quite a date

**Complications  
**by Nilladriel

**4: not quite a date**

"What a bright, beautiful day!" Lee exclaimed, throwing his hands up like a prophet welcoming a god.

Ten-Ten looked dubiously at the sun, which was not so much bright as it was a vengeful, angry demon that was intent on cooking alive any poor mortals (like them) who were foolish enough to venture outside.

"Sure," she said, and Neji snorted.

* * *

Two hours later, the three ninja had stripped as much clothing as possible off while still remaining reasonably decent. Neji was down to his sandals and shorts. Lee had pulled his legwarmers off and tugged his awful suit down. Ten-Ten had pulled her shirt off an hour ago, declaring that if anyone was offended at her training in her bra, well, they could complain to the business ends of her many, many swords.

Now they waited with their backs against a tree, sweat like a shiny coating on their body. Even the tree radiated heat. So did the _grass._

Ten-Ten slumped down to the ground. "Why," she said, "are we out here again?"

Neji looked up at the trees, looking for Lee. He did not bother to answer Ten-Ten. He was wondering why himself. It was good, yes, to ensure extreme conditions wouldn't affect their performance, and it was good to make sure their teamwork was as good as it had been back when they'd been genin, etc., but his brain didn't care about any of that. His brain was steadily and quickly being boiled. He could _feel _it.

"Oi!" someone called, and Neji jumped. Ten-Ten's reflexes had apparently been cooked by the sun, and she didn't jump. She just lay there for fifteen seconds, and then turned her head.

"Naruto?" she said, and glanced at Neji. Neji grit his teeth. Her look was far too sorry. "What are you doing here?"

Naruto was down to a net-shirt, and his glaringly orange pants threatened to fall off his hips. His hitai-ate was drenched with sweat.

With supreme effort, Neji dragged his gaze from Naruto's chest. Unfortunately, looking at his face wasn't any better. His nose was... twitching, for some reason. It was quite adorable.

After a few seconds, Neji decided to stare at the sky. It was much better than staring at Naruto.

... The sky made Neji think of Naruto's eyes, but he ignored that.

"Sasuke is a bastard," Naruto announced, thankfully dense enough to not notice Neji's odd actions, "and wanted to train. But! It's too hot, so we're going to a bar."

"We are?" Ten-Ten said. "_Thank you_! Come on, Neji! Lee! Where are you? Lee!? Oh, damn it, we're not waiting for him. Come on, you two!"

Neji pulled himself away from Ten-Ten's grip long enough to grab the sorry pile of their things, and then they went to a bar.

* * *

The one they'd chosen, a nameless establishment that thankfully had all its fans running at full power, was located on some corner in some street Neji was unfamiliar with. Then again, he was unfamiliar with most bars. His team preferred places that didn't serve alcohol. After all, there was always Rock Lee to consider.

A fair number of customers had, upon seeing Neji and Ten-Ten and Naruto's gleaming hitai-ate, walked out, probably because they knew how unpredictable ninja were and didn't like taking chances. The owner didn't much care, though; the three ordered enough ice-water to keep his purse happy.

Ten-Ten and Naruto talked. Neji concentrated on cooling down and tried not to look at Naruto too much, but then Naruto suddenly laughed—a loud, raucous laugh that threatened to shake him off his stool—and Neji, surprised, looked up.

Their gazes met and locked. Neji froze. Naruto's laughter quieted, became unsure, and then died.

The whole bar, sensing a Moment, became absolutely silent. Civilians glanced over—carefully, in case even that would incite the ninja's wrath and cause them to explode. Ten-Ten looked at Neji, and then at Naruto. She was smiling an amused smile.

As suddenly as it had started, the Moment ended. Neji blushed furiously and looked away. Naruto chuckled uneasily and turned back to Ten-Ten.

Unfortunately for them both, Ten-Ten abruptly stood up and said, "I really, really have to go to the bathroom," and fled. Neji was _sure _he saw her smiling as she went.

"So," Naruto said, after a moment.

Neji tilted his head back and drained the rest of his drink. "I," he murmured, "am going to kill her."

Naruto looked surprised. And then he laughed—again.

It was a laugh exactly similar to the one before, loud and free and obnoxious. Neji looked at him almost blankly, unable to help being pleased that _he'd _been the one to make Naruto laugh, although he didn't think he'd said anything _that _funny. Still, Naruto laughed, and Neji waited and didn't notice the smile twitching at his lips.

Unbeknownst to the two Leaf-nin, the civilians around them were exchanging knowing looks. _Ah, _the looks said, and _Oh, _and the knowing looks were accompanied by knowing nods.

"Geez," Naruto said. He'd stopped laughing, but there was laughter still in his voice. "You can be really scary sometimes."

"Really," Neji said. He decided to take it as a compliment. He was a ninja. It'd be a bit strange if those he were killing didn't find him scary.

"Yepp," Naruto said, and Neji suddenly realized that Naruto was completely at ease with him now. There'd been awkwardness earlier—the main reason he'd stayed out of Naruto and Ten-Ten's conversation, truthfully—and the Moment had been strange and wonderful and uncomfortable all at once, but now Naruto was just... Naruto. The Naruto he'd been _before _the kiss, before the two months of _it_.

Neji liked Naruto like this. He wanted Naruto to stay like this.

He stood up smoothly. "I'm hungry," he said. "Should we go get some ramen?"

"Uh, sure," Naruto said, obviously not willing to turn ramen down. "What about Ten-Ten?"

Neji gave Naruto a long look. After a moment, Naruto grinned. "Right," he said. "Ramen, sure. Let's go."

* * *

They went, of course, to Naruto's favorite stall—Ichiraku Ramen. It wasn't as cool as the previous bar had been, but that didn't matter, because it was cool enough in the shade. Neji had the pleasure of watching Naruto inhale five bowls of ramen.

"You gonna eat that?" Naruto asked, and pointed a chopstick at Neji's half-finished meal.

Neji looked down at the bowl. "No," he said finally. He didn't feel like eating anymore.

"I thought you said you were hungry," Naruto said, grabbed Neji's bowl, and began working on finishing it off.

_No. I just said that to get you here, _Neji thought but didn't say. "I was," Neji said, and shrugged.

"You talk even less than Sasuke," Naruto declared.

"Really," Neji said, and raised his head slightly. He wasn't sure if he should be insulted or not about being compared to Uchiha Sasuke. There were _differences _between them, dammit. Neji wasn't as much of a bastard, for one. And Sasuke had _mental problems_. And... and, well, Neji's eyes were _cooler_.

"Yeah," Naruto said. "Then again, he's either silent or yelling, so I guess that makes you more..." He paused. "Conversationable."

"Conversational," Neji corrected absently. "Thank you, I think."

"You're welcome," Naruto said. "See, you even say thank you!"

"Thank you," Neji said again, automatically. "Are you going to eat more?"

"Nah," Naruto said, and Neji breathed a sigh of relief. He'd begun seriously fearing for his wallet. "If the day weren't so damn hot, I'd ask if we could spar or something, but..."

Obviously now was the expected time for them to part.

Neji felt a flash of panic. No way in _hell _was he going to let his day with Naruto end so quickly. Should he invite Naruto to the dojo at the Hyuuga compound? No. They'd probably end up destroying it utterly; the dojo was meant for practitioners of the Gentle Fist, not property-damaging, whiskered ninja. "We could go to the... library," he suggested, as calmly as possible. "It's always cool there."

Naruto considered, stretching as he did so. Neji's gaze slid like liquid water from Naruto's eyes and down to his chest, which was only covered by his net-shirt, and—

"Why not?" Naruto said, thankfully not noticing, and Neji was doubly relieved.

* * *

After the library they went to the Hyuuga compound so Neji could shower and change, and then of course Naruto demanded a shower too and they had to walk all the way to _his _apartment, and then they had a drink with Ten-Ten (who looked unnecessarily smug) and Hinata (who looked worried and pleased) and Sakura (who looked slightly nervous) and Ino (who just leered). After escaping the Rookie 9 girls, they had dinner, and after _that _they met with the rest of Rookie 9 at their (and every other Leaf-nin's) favorite bar, and _that _was where the trouble started.

* * *

"Whoa," Ino said, "what are you doing here?"

Neji looked down at his sake. He looked up at Ino, and then looked down again at his drink. When his gaze slid back up to her, it was amused and slightly disbelieving.

"Yeah, yeah," Ino said. "I get it. Drinking. Right. What else do people do at bars?" She slid into the seat next to him and promptly leered. Neji, used to this, ignored her.

"So where's your boyfriend?" she asked, and kept on leering.

Neji did not bother pointing out that he and Naruto weren't dating, and that they weren't boyfriends, and that the only way he would get noticed by Naruto was by growing boobs, although then he'd probably be getting the wrong kind of attention.

He gestured instead to the other corner of the bar, where Naruto and Kiba were having an impromptu yelling and drinking contest. Akamaru was being fed something by Chouji.

"Oh," Ino said, "not _again_. So how has your day been?" She grinned at him. The grin was brighter than the sun and warm enough to bake pancakes. Neji wasn't fooled a bit. "I see you were out on a date."

She _knew _it hadn't been a date, so Neji said nothing. He kept an eye on Lee, (and what was Lee doing in a _bar_, anyway?) in case the fool accidentally drank sake again.

"Geez," Ino said. "You're _impossible_."

_Good_, Neji thought.

"So..." she said after a while, apparently not giving up, "is it true? You're in love with...?"

Neji was beginning to get irritated, but he didn't let it show. He just took a sip of sake and settled gleefully onto the task of ignoring Ino.

"You _are_, aren't you," Ino crowed delightedly. "I can't believe it! Hyuuga Neji in love with _Naruto_!"

Neji slid his eyes carefully over to Naruto. The blond ninja wasn't listening. Thus reassured, he went back to saying nothing at all.

"Too bad you have competition," Ino went on. She was used to Shikamaru's annoyed silences, probably. Or maybe she just liked the sound of her own voice as much as she liked looking at herself in the mirror. "The Ice Bastard—the other one, I mean—seems to have taken a liking to Naruto, too, you know."

What?

Neji's fingers twitched. It was a sign that would have been missed by anyone else, but unfortunately Ino was a ninja who specialized in people. She started laughing—gracefully, Neji noted, unlike Naruto's wild laugh. "You didn't _know_?" she gasped. "I would have thought it'd been _obvious_!"

Well, no. Neji was good at reading people, but only during battle, because he'd learned long ago that baiting was extremely useful in getting people angry, as angry people made mistakes. He wasn't like Ino, who watched people like a gossip-hungry hawk. And he definitely didn't watch Sasuke as much as Sakura did, and Ino was Sakura's best friend, and...

Oh, shit. But Neji didn't have a chance anyway, so it didn't matter. (Hadn't Naruto said earlier that Neji was nicer than Sasuke?) So even if the Ice Bast—even if _Sasuke _was in love with Naruto, nothing changed. (No, no, he'd said that _he guessed _Neji was more conversational. Was that the same thing?) _Absolutely nothing changed. _It _didn't matter. _It _didn't._

"Uh, Neji," Ino said, sounding a little concerned, "what did that poor jug ever do to you?"

Neji looked down, startled. He relaxed his fingers one by one and let go, but the damage had already been done; the jug had cracked, and sake was leaking out and onto the countertop.

_Shit, _Neji thought.

"Wow," Ino said, sounding slightly awed. "You... uh. I feel kind of bad now. I didn't think you were..."

Neji sat and glared at the wall and worked at getting himself under control.

"Neji," Ino said, and Neji was too pissed off to notice how soft and gentle her voice was, "just so you know, I was kidding, okay? I didn't mean what I said about Sasuke. I didn't think you were _really _in love with him."

Neji didn't hear; if he did, he didn't care. He just took a large gulp of sake, or at least the sake that hadn't spilled out, and was thankful when his nerves stopped burning and the urge to glare holes into the wall went away.

Looking guilty, Ino escaped. _Good. _Neji nursed his sake, quite content to be sulking (again) alone, and of course that meant that someone else decided to drop by and nag at him.

"What's up? You look pissed," Ten-Ten said cheerfully.

"Really," Neji said. The bartender came by and, looking completely unperturbed about the ruined jug, switched it with a fresh one. Neji slid a coin over the counter to him in return.

"You're drinking more than usual," Ten-Ten commented. She ordered water, and then looked at Neji again. "Actually, you normally don't come here at all."

"I don't," Neji agreed. He didn't think he could handle replies more than two syllables long.

"Naruto dragged you here, didn't he."

"Yes," Neji said.

Seeing his expression, Ten-Ten wisely changed the subject. "I think Lee's deliberately trying to get drunk," she half-complained. "_No one _can mistake sake for water _that much_."

"He's Lee," Neji pointed out.

Ten-Ten snorted. "I guess. But—hey, whoa, look who's here! Sa-ku-ra!"

Neji felt immensely relieved when Sakura came over, and temporarily forgot about his plans to murder her. Sakura and Ten-Ten could talk, and that would mean he would be left alone, which was good. He looked at Kiba and Naruto's corner, or at least he looked at the tips of their spiky hair; a cheering crowd had gathered around them, and he could barely see them.

Neji pitied Kiba. Naruto could hold his drink. He never seemed to get drunk, or even slightly inebriated. Even now he could see that Kiba, or at least Kiba's hair, was swaying, and Naruto was just bouncing up and down from excitement.

Thankfully, Ten-Ten and Sakura were busy conversing, and didn't seem interested in bugging him about Naruto. So after a few minutes Neji stood up, walked over to Lee, and grabbed his rival's arm firmly.

"Hey!" Lee protested. Neji gave him a cool enough look.

"It's not safe in here," he said.

"I can take care of myself," Lee said, looking vaguely puzzled.

"I wasn't talking about _you,_" Neji said, annoyed, and bodily dragged his rival out.

They walked, heading in the direction of Lee's apartment. Lee was cheerful enough, and they talked for a bit, about jutsu and missions, and Neji had his first conversation in a while that didn't have to do with Naruto.

Finally their words faded away, and then came a comfortable, familiar silence. Neji stared up at the stars, and at the moon, and was suddenly, abruptly reminded of the night of the kiss. He didn't just remember it—for a fleeting, brief moment, _it was happening again_, and his lips were pressing against Naruto's skin, which had been surprisingly smooth, and his chest was brushing against Naruto's shoulder, and his fingers were touching Naruto's fingers, and—

"Neji?" Lee said. "Are you alright?"

Neji jerked himself out of his memories. He'd stopped walking, and Lee was a few feet ahead, half-turned and worried.

"No," he said, a dry smile twisting his lips. Lee, thankfully, Did Not Ask.

They reached Lee's apartment, and Neji was invited in, but he declined. He wished to go home. He wanted to think. _Think, _not sulk.

He wanted, he realized, blushing, to remember the kiss. The kiss that had not quite been a kiss.

He waited until his face wasn't completely red, and then set off again. He studiously avoided looking at the moon, although then he found he couldn't quite look at the lamplight, either, or the few lights that shone in peoples' homes. And he had to avoid spotting the color orange or blue or yellow, and Neji suddenly found that life was difficult. Sigh.

He paused suddenly. He could see a familiar shape in the not-quite-distance. It stood just at the corner of the block, and it was... it was...

Naruto's apartment. He'd been there just once, for some sort of party.

Neji stared. And then, overtaken by a sudden wave of frustration, he turned around—

"Sasuke," he said, startled, and Sasuke looked coolly back at him.

"Neji," he said in greeting.

His dark eyes bore into Neji's, and Neji felt a chill. Ever since his return, Sasuke had been—different. And at night he seemed completely at home. His silk-black hair faded into the black around them, and his skin, which was either beautifully pale or horribly sunburned, seemed to glow. He was wearing his usual loose shirt and shorts, and looked sweaty and dirty. He'd obviously been training.

After a long moment, Neji walked by Sasuke. Or he would have, if Sasuke's hand hadn't snaked out and grabbed Neji's wrist.

Neji froze. _Ally, _he reminded himself. _Sasuke. Is. An. Ally._

His body didn't listen. It was tense, and ready to kill.

Sasuke looked amused. He let go. "So is it true?" he asked.

Neji looked at him blankly. And then realization dawned.

_Oh, no, _he thought. _Not _him, _too. _

Sasuke waited. Neji realized that Sasuke wasn't Ino, and couldn't read every slight clue that people gave away. "Why," he said, "do you care?"

Sasuke rolled his shoulders and head. He moved like oil, slick and unnaturally smooth. It was rather disturbing to watch. "I'm curious," he finally said.

"Really."

"Yes." Sasuke rolled a shoulder again. "You do know he doesn't belong to you, right?"

"He doesn't belong to you, either," Neji said coldly.

Sasuke looked at him with the expression of a teacher humoring a student. "Of course," he said. "I'm not surprised," he said suddenly. "Naruto's an easy guy to fall in love with."

Neji remembered what Ino had said. Had she really been joking?

"Gaara, Hinata, and now... you." Sasuke's eyes glittered.

"And you?" Neji asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sasuke's lips curved up. Somehow, it didn't look like a smile. "No," he corrected, almost gently.

Neji was relieved. Almost. Until he remembered the bit where Naruto preferred breasts, and the relief fled.

"I just wanted to warn you," Sasuke said. He stepped closer—far too close. "If you ever hurt Naruto again... I'll kill you."

Neji bristled. As if he would ever hurt Naruto on purpose!

And then his mind backed up. _Again?_

Sasuke read the expression that flashed across Neji's face easily enough, probably because he was close enough to kiss. "You've been treating him like shit for the last two months," he said, and raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you notice? Maybe I _should _kill you after all."

Neji glared.

Sasuke stepped back, carefully wearing an expression of boredom, which wasn't good, because Sasuke looked bored even when killing people. Bored and slightly insane.

_Before, _Neji thought, horrified, _he would have taunted. But he's different now. Orochimaru's changed him._

Still speaking in that smooth voice, where consonants rolled together gracefully, Sasuke said, "I don't know why, but Naruto considers you a close friend. But you hurt him, and you're a friend, so it hurts more. I don't know what happened between you two that night, but since then you've been ignoring and avoiding him." He added, as if it mattered: "I don't like it."

Feeling vaguely as if he were a chastened student who had an obligation to offer up an explanation, Neji said, "I tried to kiss him."

He liked the expression on Sasuke's face then. It was a nice combination of _what the fuck!? _and bewilderment.

"Well," Sasuke said, smiling, smiling an actual smile. In fact, he looked like he was about to laugh. "That explains a lot."

"Does it," Neji said dryly.

"Maybe I won't kill you after all," Sasuke said.

"As if you could," Neji said.

Sasuke smiled, and he was back to smiling that not-smile. "Try me, Hyuuga," he said.

"Maybe I will someday, Uchiha," Neji returned.

Machismo done, Sasuke smirked and turned and left, which obviously meant the... discussion... confrontation... _thing _was over.

Neji stared after him, bemused.

He swung back around, fully intending to head back home, but of course life, having decided it wanted to be difficult, made him bump into more people. Thankfully, these people weren't insane (mostly), and their minds hadn't been twisted by Orochimaru or cursed seals or vengeance, and they didn't make his fingers itch for the kunai in his waist-pouch.

That didn't mean he would have wanted to bump into them.

Neji almost sighed. "Naruto, Kiba," he greeted, thoroughly unsurprised.

"Hey, Neji!" Naruto said cheerfully. He didn't seem drunk.

Kiba, who'd zoomed past drunk, waved goodbye at wasted, and was thoroughly in the territory of _completely smashed_, gave Neji an almost accusing look. "Neji! It's _you_," he declared.

"Thank you," Neji said, "I know my name."

Akamaru, who looked mortified, was somehow managing to hide behind Kiba, although his size reminded Neji of baby elephants. He was nudging his master's legs with his nose and making reproachful noises in his throat.

"I'm taking him home. Sakura's making me," Naruto explained. "Want to come?"

Neji didn't, but he went anyway; besides, he knew an alternate route home from Kiba's family compound, and he figured he could steal more time with Naruto. It was easy enough to ignore Kiba, who was doing a spectacular job of being a drunken idiot. It wasn't much of a change from his normal idiocy, at least.

Akamaru supported Kiba well enough, so Naruto and Neji were free to talk. Or they would have been free to talk, except neither of them were actually talking. Neji didn't mind.

Naruto walked with his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants. He had an almost-pout on his face. It was an odd expression to see on an adult. Somewhere along the way he'd pulled his hitai-ate down, so that it wove around his neck, not his head, and his messy blond hair fell into his eyes. It made him look younger. And it was... cute. Not that Neji would ever use the word out loud. But it fit Naruto, who pulled off "cute" quite easily.

Not that Neji would ever say _that _out loud, either.

_You're staring, _a little voice piped up helpfully.

_Is he always this pensive at night? _said a louder voice, which recognized that Neji couldn't have stopped staring even if he wanted to.

"You smell funny," Kiba said suddenly.

Naruto turned his head. "Oi, Kiba," he said. "You better not be saying I smell funny."

The words sounded automatic—more habit than anything else. The funny, thoughtful expression on his face wasn't quite gone. It would, Neji realized, probably take a bit of a shock to pull Naruto out of his mood. A shock like a kiss.

Neji firmly stopped that train of thought.

"What if I am?" Kiba challenged, and stood up straighter. Unfortunately, that meant he had to stop leaning on Akamaru, which meant he stumbled, and then he was just lying on the ground and laughing himself.

"If you are," Naruto said, looking down at Kiba, "I'll—"

"We're here," Neji cut in neatly.

"Oh, _finally_," Naruto said. He pulled Kiba up, and then ruffled up the fur on Akamaru's head. "You make sure he gets in alright," he said, and then looked up at Neji. "Hmmm... hey! Why don't you stop at my apartment for a bit?"

Neji stared at Naruto, at first uncomprehending. And then he nodded, slowly, because he was starting to get the feeling that Naruto didn't really want to stop spending time with Neji, either. Not today, at least.

_I don't know what happened between you two that night, but since then you've been ignoring and avoiding him._

_That _mental voice sounded far too much like one Uchiha Sasuke.

* * *

Naruto's apartment was of a reasonable size—just enough space for one person. It was also surprisingly neat, but that was something Neji remembered from last time.

The kitchen didn't have much in it. There were plants, and mismatched-magnets and notes stuck onto the fridge. On the windowsill was a recent picture of Team 7. Naruto gave it a brief smile, and then pulled the fridge open.

"I've got milk," he said. "Want some?"

"Water will be fine," Neji murmured. Naruto nodded and proceeded to make more noise than should be possible while fetching a glass of milk and a glass of water.

Neji looked out the window. There wasn't much to see. The village was sleeping, and he could see only the occasional light. Far off, beyond the walls, he saw a brief flash of—something. An explosion, probably. Maybe some ninja were training.

Neji's gaze went from the flashes to the window—or, more specifically, the reflections in the window. Naruto was standing, two glasses in his hands, and he was looking at Neji. That _look _was on his face again—that reflective, thoughtful, pensive one.

Their eyes met through the reflection.

There was something about Naruto's gaze—about his expression—that was hypnotic. Neji let himself stare. Naruto was doing it too, anyway, except that Naruto's cheeks weren't slowly heating, and his heart probably wasn't beating a trifle bit too fast.

"What is it?" Neji asked, striving for his usual calm tone. Instead, he sounded flustered.

"Nothing," Naruto said quickly, and grinned uncomfortably. "Uh—here's your water."

From somewhere—the living room, probably—a clock chimed softly. It was midnight, then.

Neji reached forward. He wrapped bandaged fingers around Naruto's, and saw the way Naruto's eyes widened, and the way his shoulders stiffened, but he paid that no mind for now. Naruto's skin felt warm, even through the bandages, and it felt as if tiny electrical sparks were dancing on and under his skin.

He stepped forward, closer and closer, until they were just two hand-widths apart. Naruto was impossibly tense, and clearly uneasy and discomfited, but for a moment Neji didn't care at all.

The moment passed.

Neji almost said something (something he probably would have regretted later) but stepped back and grasped the glass of water instead, and sat back down. He took a sip, as if he hadn't just—

Hadn't just—

What exactly _had _he just done, anyway?

Naruto's expression was amusing, at least. He was still gawping slightly at Neji.

"Um," he managed. "Uh."

Neji, delighted at the way he was back to himself—mostly, anyway—raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to drink?" he asked. "Or is that milk decoration?"

Obediently, Naruto slid down into his seat. He stared down at his drink, looking bewildered.

And then the bewilderment slipped away from his face, only to be replaced with determination. Neji's heart sank. He knew what was coming. _You know I don't feel that way. _And probably a _We're just friends._ Or maybe even a _Whatever the fuck you just did, don't do it again._

"Neji," Naruto began, "you... you _know _I just think of you as a friend, right?"

Neji's stopped sinking and started plummeting.

"I just..." Naruto ran a hand through his hair, which did not help, because whenever he did that he went from cute to sexy. "I just—"

"I know," Neji said. He stared down at his drink. "I..."

_I just can't help myself, you _stupid idiot.

_Can't you see that?_

"I don't want things to get all funny with us again," Naruto said, sounding a little miserable, although not nearly as miserable as Neji felt.

Damn, damn, damn!

"Neither do I," Neji said. "Maybe I should leave." He stood up.

Naruto _jumped _up. "Hey, wait!" he yelped. "I thought you just said that you didn't want things to be funny—!"

"I don't," Neji said, "alright? _I don't._ I don't want to lose you because of my..." He stopped, shook his head slightly. "If I stay here," he continued smoothly, "I am going to do something stupid." _Like slam you against the wall and kiss you. _"So I am going to leave."

"But—"

"I'll be better tomorrow," Neji said, as if he were talking about a disease. "But right now I—"

Words had never been his strong point. He had a sudden urge to grab Naruto by the arms and shake him violently.

"I can't stay right now," he said instead. "I don't want to do—to do anything stupid. So I am going to leave." This was sound enough logic, so he nodded to himself. "Things will be fine between us, I promise. They won't be... funny. We're still—still friends."

Neji couldn't say anything else, because Naruto looked angry and abandoned and lost all at once, so he did something he'd never have done on the battlefield.

He fled.


	5. 5: sand

**Complications  
**by Nilladriel

**5: sand**

The office windows were all open, and the Fifth's elite ANBU guard (who seemed to serve more as messengers and errand-boys) had dragged in four fans for the Fifth's comfort.

The spinning of the fans' blades was the only sound in the office. Neji took a deep breath and let the air out again slowly, digesting Tsunade's words with an unhappy frown on his face.

A mission all the way to the Great Sand Village, with only Naruto as company?

Neji was not usually one to question orders. But—

"Why me?" he asked. He swore Tsunade was smirking. It was an _evil _smirk, and slightly smug, but then the smirk disappeared and a more serious expression, feigned or not, set in.

"Officially, it's because Leaf values its ninja and a two-man team is more capable of protecting itself," the Fifth replied. "Unofficially it's because you're a Hyuuga—and one of our best jounin—and we want to show off a bit. And, in the event that Itachi decides to capture the Nine-Tails while he's out of the village, you'll be there to help Naruto fend him off."

It was a perfectly reasonable explanation. The village hadn't been receiving many missions for the past few months, and even those rarely required a particularly high level of skill. It was unlikely that he would be needed anytime soon; he could afford to go, and it _was _normal for allied ninja villages to occasionally send one of their better ninja over to remind their allies that they were stronger, _so there_.

But….

Neji stared at Tsunade, who was looking at him with an amused expression. She hadn't dismissed him yet, so he asked, almost despairingly: "What about Sasuke? He and Naruto work well together."

Tsunade's snorted. "While I won't deny they make a better fighting pair, sending Sasuke anywhere with Naruto is out of the question," she said. "Not when the Akatsuki might attempt to capture him at any moment." She eyed him for a moment—clearly she wasn't used to him asking questions. "Is there anything else?"

"No." He pressed his lips together, not quite able to force the frown off his face, and bowed.

As he was leaving the office, he heard the Fifth say, "You shouldn't let personal feelings stop you from accepting missions."

He paused and, after a moment, gave an acknowledging nod, but he didn't reply.

* * *

They met up at dawn. Naruto, upon seeing Neji, offered a strained grin. Neji nodded, smiled slightly, and looked away.

He really would have preferred any other mission to this. Even escort duty. Or, worse, _patrol _duty. But he forced himself to voice an awkward greeting, which was returned. He asked after Sakura, and Naruto asked after Hinata. Both girls were fine, the sky was blue, and the weather was also nice.

And so the tone of the mission was set, the first day being almost completely silent and frustratingly, absolutely, completely _boring _in that restless, itching, _awkward _way generally found in hospitals. They ran through Fire Country's thick forests, arms flying behind them, and Neji calculated that at the pace they were going they'd reach Sand in a reasonable three days—_if _they could keep up their current speed while traveling through desert.

Unsurprisingly, they had ramen for lunch.

The next day was again thick with heat, and although the canopy ensured the morning's cool lasted longer than usual by afternoon Neji's skin was coated with sweat, although he'd chosen his lightest clothes for the mission. His headband felt as if it had glued itself to his forehead, and while he was thankful that it prevented sweat and hair from running into his eyes he was _not _thankful for the way it clung to his skin, the cloth warm, damp and sticky.

Up ahead, Naruto gave a sudden whoop and stopped.

Landing on a branch near him, Neji saw why. Below them, looking wonderfully sweet and cool, was a small river; it wove around a giant tree and then snaked out of sight. The current didn't look too rapid, and best of all, Neji saw thick, fat fish below the surface.

Naruto, of course, had already stripped down to his boxers and cannon-balled right in. Neji, bemused, watched him from his perch atop the branch.

"You really shouldn't be doing that," he called down, but even as he said the words he was suddenly, abruptly aware of the way he _stank_, of how the heat seemed to cling to him like a determined leech. But he was also aware that they'd been given a mission, and the sooner they completed it, the better.

Naruto grinned. "We're gonna cross a _desert_," he pointed out. "Enjoy the water while you can!"

"Naruto—" Neji said, grinding his teeth together, but of course Naruto wasn't listening. If he was, he wasn't showing it. "Naruto, get _out_," Neji repeated, but again, no result.

He sighed, resigned. He might as well join Naruto, he decided. He put his backpack down and scouted around the area, something Naruto, of course, wouldn't think to do. He set up a few perimeter traps, and only then did he allow himself to go into the water.

It felt like heaven on his skin. Unlike Naruto, who was splashing around and apparently trying to catch fish, Neji just stayed near the shore, sitting on a half-submerged rock and splashing water onto his face and attempting to wash the sweat out of his hair with only water.

"Got one!" Naruto crowed. Neji glanced at him; he was holding up a huge, brown-and-silver mottled fish.

"Is that lunch?" he asked.

"Yepp," Naruto said, throwing the fish carelessly onto the shore, where it flopped a little pathetically and stared up at Neji with begging black eyes. Neji ignored it.

He got out of the water and dried off, and then started a fire to cook the fish while Naruto tried to catch more, apparently very hungry.

He sat and watched, waiting for the fire to get hot enough while absentmindedly gutting and preparing the fish. The catch-pile gradually got bigger and bigger, until Neji started to believe that Naruto was fishing more for the sake of it than for food.

"That's enough fish, Naruto," he said. Naruto pouted but climbed out of the water, shaking his head wildly so that his hair and water droplets flew about.

"That felt _good_," he proclaimed. Neji nodded and handed him a fish; it was hot on his fingers—too hot, actually—and watched as Naruto promptly gobbled it down, probably eating as much of the bone as of the meat.

Neji was no stranger to Naruto's appetite, which Lee had once described as "healthy," earning him twin disbelieving glances from his teammates. But it was always a little alarming to see Naruto eat when he was really, truly hungry.

Alright. _More _than a little alarming.

Neji clutched his portion possessively, inched away, and set about eating in a calm, dignified matter. Silence reigned, and while the sunlight danced on the river water in an absolutely charming way, it was also an ever-present heat that made even the grass and ground warm to the touch. At least swimming in the river had fought off the day's heat—for half an hour or so, anyway.

Fifteen minutes later they set off again, revitalized. They moved faster, so that the wind bit at their cheeks and wrecked havoc with their hair.

They stopped a few hours after dark, at where the forest started to melt into the desert.

Here, the trees abruptly stopped. Scrubs and grasses extended past the horizon, where the black of night swallowed them up. The moon glowed. Neji, very carefully, avoided looking at it.

While they were still officially in Fire Country, realistically speaking they were between Wind and Fire's borders, in the gray area where criminals tended to gather and patrols were few.

"We're not making a fire," Neji said, before Naruto could go off in search of wood. Naruto turned and frowned.

"Since when were _you _in charge of the mission?"

"I'm your senior," Neji reminded him, raising an eyebrow.

"What's that have to do with anything?" Naruto replied, crossing his arms.

Neji quirked his lips. "It means that, by default, I _am _in charge. A fire would attract attention," he added, tone becoming less amused and more serious. "While attention is not something we cannot afford, it _is _something I'd rather avoid."

"Doesn't mean you can go 'round ordering me like that," Naruto said; his frown, if possible, was deepening.

"If you'd rather—" Neji began, and abruptly stopped. No. He was _not _going to have this escalate into a fight. Not _now_.

"I'm not ordering you around," he said finally, about as slow and calm as a pot about to boil over. "I just don't think a fire is a very good idea right now."

"Right," Naruto said, equally slowly. "I guess we can just put our bedrolls under that tree and eat a nice, _cold _dinner."

They did.

Naruto glared at Neji while he ate. Neji ignored him, simply tugging his bedroll closer to the shadows and crawling in.

* * *

"There's people approaching," Naruto said.

He was right; the two slowed down to a walk, Naruto coaxing water from his bottle as they went.

"They might be escorts," Neji said, raising a hand to shield his sharp eyes from the harsh glare of the sun. "They're definitely escorts," he confirmed in a low murmur, dropping his hand. He'd fought alongside Sand-nin before; they'd worn simple, almost painfully practical clothes, and the ninja approaching were dressed better, somehow. Their clothes just looked _newer, _and Neji spied a few ornaments and bracelets.

Also, he'd never known anyone who kept their head-plates _that _shiny.

"Escorts?" Naruto said, and squinted. "What do we need escorts for?"

Neji raised and lowered a shoulder. "We are messengers from Leaf," he said simply. "It's only polite."

"Oh," Naruto said. He sounded unimpressed and puzzled.

Neji bowed in greeting when the Sand-nin approached. Naruto followed his example hastily.

There were three Sand-nin in all; one jounin and two chuunin. They gave Neji's blank, white eyes a long stare, and Neji stared back. When they saw Naruto, the jounin smiled slightly in recognition.

"The Kazekage will be glad to see you," he said, and led the two to Sand. Thankfully, they moved at a fairly rapid pace, and with company it seemed as if the walls of Sand rose up in no time at all. Naruto gave a whoop of delight when he saw them, prompting an odd look from one of the chuunin accompanying them.

There weren't many people out; there wouldn't be, not until night and its welcome cool had set in. However, Neji saw faces appear at windows as they passed by, and some ninja appeared at rooftops and gave them lazy salutes. Naruto grinned and waved at these ninja; Neji did too, when he recognized them.

The Kazekage's tower was as empty as the streets outside, with the not-quite-silence typical of a building full of offices. There were hallways full of closed doors, and once a ragged-looking shinobi passed by, obviously heading out after giving a report.

The room they finally found themselves in was a meeting room of some sort. Their escorts bowed and left, after promising to secure suitable accommodations for the two of them. Neji murmured a word of thanks. Once they were gone, he looked around the room.

A circular table dominated the center. There were no windows and only two doors. It made Neji's skin itch. He felt closed in and trapped. In Leaf, the rooms almost always had windows, in order to ensure the wind could come in and circulate the air.

Here the wind carried sand with it, and so windows tended to be small—or not there at all. It was a very geometric village, Neji had realized, full of angles that spoke of careful planning. Quite unalike Leaf's haphazard, mismatched buildings, where pipes and wires snaked everywhere.

A blonde kunoichi entered the room. "Temari!" Naruto said, and half-ran as he went to greet her.

Temari grinned at him. "Long time no see," she said. The two blonds clasped hands. "You, too, Neji," she added, looking up.

Neji thought about bowing, but decided that would be too formal. He gave her a small smile instead. "It _has _been a long time," he said.

"We have so much to catch up on," Naruto said, radiating energy, as if they hadn't just ran through miles and miles and miles of hot, scorching desert. Neji couldn't help but smile and shake his head at that, feeling his heart warm.

"We will," Temari promised. She turned, and a familiar red-head stepped into the room.

"Gaara!" Naruto said, and then: "Holy _shit_, you've grown taller."

Gaara's lips twitched. "You haven't," he said.

"Hey, don't be like that…!"

* * *

Somehow or other, they ended up in the Kazekage's personal kitchen.

Gaara and his two siblings, it seemed, shared an apartment. It wasn't a very grandiose apartment, though it _was _likely bigger than most.

_Gaara didn't want to live alone, _Temari had explained quietly when she'd seen Naruto's questioning look.

_Ah, _Neji thought, and shared a glance with Naruto.

There was a kind grandmother who came by every week or so to drop off warm dinners. Her visits were always appreciated, Temari said, because Temari, despite being a girl, barely managed not to burn everything and Kankuro was only barely decent at cooking.

Gaara just… didn't want to cook.

No one bothered to try and make him.

Probably no one had ever forced Gaara to do _anything_, Neji thought.

"Kankuro's out right now," Temari said, pulling open the fridge, "but I'm sure there's something in here that I can heat up—"

"Nah," Naruto said, "you don't have to. Neji's an awesome cook! I bet he wouldn't mind making something for us."

Neji almost protested, but then Naruto turned and _smiled_.

Neji immediately gave in. "I could," he said, standing up.

Temari promptly burst out laughing.

Gaara looked at her, looking bemused and puzzled. When it became clear that she wasn't about to stop, he pushed her gently out of the way and peered at the fridge's contents. "We have vegetables," he volunteered in a monotone, "and lizard."

Neji paused slightly. _Lizard…? _he thought.

Oh, well. He'd made stranger meals, as shinobi couldn't afford to be picky on the battlefield.

Behind them, Naruto was bending concernedly over Temari, who still hadn't stopped laughing and was wheezing and gasping in a rather worrying way.

* * *

Dinner was actually quite good, even if the meat felt a little, well, strange. Neji'd done the best he could, anyway.

After they were done eating, Neji excused himself. Gaara and Naruto, he reasoned, would probably want some time alone.

Outside, night had finally fallen. It was cool. Cold, in fact.

He really needed a shower, but somehow the thought had slipped his mind—until now. He could feel sand everywhere on him, caught in his clothes and hair, and while he'd never been particularly vain he was aware that he probably looked as if he'd just walked through a sandstorm. And his hair was probably a greasy mess.

A door opened and closed. He heard the _click _of heels against the stone floor of the balcony.

"You're staying in that building over there," Temari said, stepping to his side and pointing. "Normally we don't keep foreign ninja so close to us, even allies, but you're special guests."

Neji looked. The building she'd pointed out was sand-colored, exactly like the rest of the village. It had small windows, exactly like the rest of the village.

He hoped the inside, at least, was a little less uniform.

"You don't talk a lot, do you," Temari said.

Neji's lips twitched. "No," he agreed, looking at her.

"Huh," Temari said, and shook her head slightly. "And here I thought you'd be less of an icy bastard."

She didn't seem to have meant any offense, so Neji raised an eyebrow and only nodded.

An awkward silence descended, but Neji had never minded them much. He just looked out at the village, enjoying the night's cold and the blanket of stars above, which cast an odd sort of luminescence that made the sandy buildings look almost blue.

"It's not as colorful as Leaf," Temari said, turning her gaze to the view as well, "but I think Sand Village is quite beautiful, don't you think?"

"Hm," Neji said. "It is." He noted the touch of pride in her voice with some amusement. "Why are you out here?"

"Because Naruto and Gaara are busy talking inside—well, Naruto's talking, anyway—and I thought I'd join you out here and give them privacy," Temari said, sounding annoyed. "I'm sorry I didn't know you're allergic to conversation."

"It's been a long day," Neji said, in a not-quite-apologetic tone.

"In the desert, all days are long," Temari said. "Are you heading back tomorrow?"

"No," Neji said. After a bit he added, "We've been instructed to carry back the Kazekage's reply."

"That'll take a while. Mind getting a letter to Shikamaru too?" she asked.

Neji shook his head.

Silence fell again, this time a shade more comfortable. Naruto's voice could be heard, muffled by the wall, with occasional pauses so that he could breath, and perhaps even so Gaara could reply in his quiet way.

"What is it?" he asked; Temari was studying him, and the weight of her gaze hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Nothing." There was another pause, lasting nearly a minute. "By the way," Temari asked, suddenly smirking, "mind if I ask you something?"

Judging by her expression, Neji thought he probably _would _mind. But before he could reply, the door slammed open, causing both Temari and Neji to whirl around in surprise, Temari reaching for a giant fan that wasn't there.

Naruto, not noticing their startled reactions at all, bounded up to them. "Ready to go?" he asked Neji. "Gaara says we have a _really big apartment _and we have it all to ourselves. Want to walk us there?" Naruto added, turning to Temari.

"Sure," Temari said easily. "Where's Gaara?"

"He said he had some work to take care off," Naruto said, shrugging. Temari nodded at this.

"Let's go, then." She jumped over the rail and landed on the street below.

Neji and Naruto retrieved their bags and then followed her example.

* * *

Temari left as soon as she had shown them their temporary apartment. Naruto immediately claimed the shower, leaving Neji to check the rooms for anything suspicious, not because he truly thought he had to but because it was better than just sitting and waiting for Naruto to finish.

Gaara was right; the apartment _was _spacious. Neji chose a bedroom and put his bag down. Although rather bare, the bed in the corner was big, and there was enough space to do simple exercises.

"Neji!" Naruto called. "Shower's free!"

"You don't have to yell," Neji said, and entered the bathroom, towel in hand. He saw Naruto make a face at him just before he closed the door.

He looked at his reflection with a frown. As he'd guessed, his hair _was _an absolute mess. And he'd _tanned_, except for his nose, which just looked burnt.

The shower-water was freezing, but Neji didn't mind. He worked as fast as he could, aware that the people of the Sand valued water, seeing as they lived in the middle of a desert.

He could hear Naruto singing some song or other as he banged about in the kitchen, even through the spray of the shower. Neji shook his head slightly at that and reached for the shampoo he'd packed.

Less than five minutes later he was out, wrapping a towel around his waist. He felt refreshed, his skin pleasantly damp and cool. He squeezed water out from his hair with his hands. It wasn't completely clean, but he'd done the best he could.

"Oi, Neji!" Naruto yelled, apparently standing right outside the bathroom. Neji snorted to himself, not bothering to answer. He lo—respected the other ninja, but sometimes he was just _obnoxiously loud_.

"I made ramen!" Naruto continued, completely undeterred by the lack of response. "You want some?"

Neji pulled the door open. "We just had dinner," he pointed out, before turning to grab another towel and using it to rub his hair dry.

Naruto didn't reply. Neji didn't notice until the silence began to weigh on him. "Naruto?"

"Ah—um," Naruto said, sounding suspiciously like he was choking. "Do… I'll—ramen!"

Completely baffled, Neji turned around, a question on the tip of his tongue, but Naruto had already dashed off to the kitchen.

He adjusted the towel around his waist with a sigh and headed to his bedroom for a change of clothes.

Naruto, he thought, could also be obnoxiously _confusing _at times.


	6. 6: uncertainty

**Complications  
**by Nilladriel

**6: uncertainty**

The villagers of Sand slept through the heat of the day and were most awake at night; Naruto and Neji, having experienced the desert sun's wrath, followed their example—or tried to, anyway. It was hard for Neji to sleep during the day. It was too bright, and his mind refused to shut up. A thousand nonsense thoughts ran through his head, diligently keeping him awake and running in endless circles.

Finally Neji got out of bed. He tried to meditate for a while, thinking that might perhaps ease him to sleep, but it didn't work. Although his mind became dutifully clear of thoughts, once he opened his eyes again they all rushed back in again, clamoring for attention.

Thinking perhaps a drink might help, he walked out of his room. He found Naruto in the kitchen, considering a glass of water as if it held all the answers in the universe.

Or maybe he was just daydreaming.

Naruto glanced up. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," Neji returned.

"The water here tastes funny," Naruto announced gravely.

"I… see," Neji said, eyeing Naruto's half-empty glass. He poured his own glass, sat down, and took a sip. Naruto was right; the water _did _taste a little funny. Tinny, almost. But Neji drank it all anyway.

"Want to spar?" Naruto offered.

Neji gave him an incredulous look. "In this heat?" he asked.

Naruto pouted.

"We can spar at night," Neji said, carefully looking away. The village was eerily silent—another difference from Leaf, where people seemed unable to shut up. The little view the window offered showed empty streets and a clear, cloud-free sky.

"Alright!" Naruto agreed.

Neji smiled slightly. "I look forward to winning."

Naruto snorted. "Yeah, right. I kicked your ass at the chuunin exams, and I can kick it again."

"That was three years ago," Neji said, raising an eyebrow.

He doubted that they would have an actual spar; they were both too competitive and the spar would likely turn into a friendly fight, with a given value of "friendly." His blood sang in anticipation at the thought.

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said. "Like I said, I'll kick your ass tonight!"

Neji smiled. In the tone of an adult humoring a child, he said, "We'll see."

* * *

"I came to drop off my letter," Temari said when Neji opened the door.

He took it and disappeared inside his room to tuck it safely into a pocket of his bag. When he came back out again, he saw Temari had seated herself on the couch.

"Would you like some water?" Neji asked after a moment.

Temari shook her head. "Where's Naruto?" she asked.

"Hunting down a ramen stall, I believe," Neji said, amusement coloring his tone. "He won't be back for a while."

"Really? And he left you behind?"

"I didn't want to go."

"Huh," Temari said, looking at him curiously. "I'd have thought he would have convinced you to go."

Neji didn't reply. Naruto _almost _had. Damn that smile of his.

"I guess I'll treat you to dinner, then," Temari said, managing to not look too disturbed by his silence. "I bet you're hungry."

"Thank you," Neji said, surprised.

"It's no problem," Temari said, waving a hand dismissively. They set off through Sand's streets, which had suddenly filled with people. Above the sky was a brilliant black and littered with more stars than Neji had ever thought possible.

"So why were you sent here?" Temari asked; the streets were crowded, but people seemed to recognize Temari as being Gaara's sister, and so made way with amusing haste. "I would have thought you'd be on a more important mission."

"Not many missions are coming in," Neji admitted. "Most of the higher-ranked missions are going to those who truly need the money."

"A bust period, huh," Temari said sympathetically. "We're going through the same. Everybody's been getting restless. Seems like there's a fight every day."

Neji snorted lightly. With people like Naruto and Kiba in Leaf, fights broke out every day _anyway_, despite the Fifth assigning patrol duty to anyone who dared to piss her off too much. As a result, Leaf had become a very _safe _village over the past few weeks.

"One of these days," Temari went on, "I think everyone'll get bored enough for another war to erupt. Ah, here we are."

The restaurant she'd led them to was nice enough, full of light metal tables and chairs; the customers were made up entirely of shinobi. Neji received a few watchful stares, but not enough to really make him feel threatened. Still, they chose a table a ways off from the rest.

"I'll have my usual," Temari said to the waitress who came by.

The waitress looked at Neji and smiled a sweet smile. "How about you?" she asked.

Neji glanced at Temari, and Temari glanced back. "He'll have my usual, too," Temari said, and Neji hoped her usual didn't have any lizard-meat in it.

The waitress didn't even look at Temari; she just nodded, eyes still on Neji, and smiled what she probably hoped was a flirtatious smile. "Would you like a drink, too?"

Temari was beginning to look annoyed. Neji was already annoyed. As coolly as possible he said, "Just water, thanks."

"Are you sure? We've got juice," the waitress said, obviously reluctant to head away from the table.

"Just water," Neji repeated, and _glared_.

The girl immediately fled.

"Shit," Temari said, laughing. "You didn't have to scare her like that. She was only flirting."

Neji raised an eyebrow; he hadn't been the only one annoyed, but apparently Temari had selective and _extremely _short-term memory.

"Anyway, she was pretty. Kankuro would have flirted right back," she added, as if it was somehow the expected behavior.

"I'm not Kankuro," Neji said, his mind immediately sketching out a horrible mental image of himself wearing face paint and that awful black _thing _the puppeteer insisted on wearing.

"Pity. He's nicer than you. Why's your mood so black all the time, anyway?" Temari said.

Neji stared hard at her.

"See?" she said. "I thought it was just last night, but apparently not."

She was about to add something else, but then the waitress came by. The girl gave Neji a small, worried smile. He almost glared at her again, but instead sighed internally and forced himself to murmur a quiet thank you, twitching his lips in what may have been a smile but was more likely a grimace. The waitress beamed at this and walked off with a bounce in her step.

"Good looks are _wasted _on someone like you," Temari complained, having watched the whole exchange with an air of annoyed amusement.

Neji was too busy giving the food a horrified look to reply. Temari's usual was not, in fact, lizard-meat.

But it _was _a giant bug—a giant cockroach? Grasshopper?—swathed in some sort of honey-red sauce.

_You're a ninja of Leaf, and a jounin with more than a hundred missions under your belt, _Neji reminded himself, and picked up his fork with a swallow.

They ate in silence, although it couldn't truly be called silence. Other customers laughed and talked around them; one ninja, in a manner extremely reminiscent of Kiba, was leaning back in his chair and waving his arms wildly as he talked. A young girl in the corner was refusing to eat her food and making it known to the world by screaming her fool head off. A ninja—at least a chuunin, by the looks of it—was trying to calm her down and looking as if he'd rather be facing off against S-class enemies than getting the girl to eat. Maybe it was a D-class babysitting mission. A huge number of D-class missions had popped up recently; civilians liked to keep shinobi occupied. It was amazing how much property was damaged during peace-time because of restless shinobi seeking ways to make their training more interesting.

"It's not normally as full as this," Temari said after she'd finished off most of her meal. "I hate busts." She flagged a passing waitress down and asked for more water. This waitress, unlike the previous one, did not give shy smiles. She downright leered at Neji, making him feel a little bit like a piece of meat.

"But I hear some lord is marrying his princess off," Temari said. "So hopefully we'll be getting hired for assassinations and guard duty soon." She visibly brightened up at this.

Neji hated assassinating. There was something _dirty _about it, but he couldn't deny that it was good money, and he'd prefer it over guard duty, which often involved staying very still while looking as dangerous as possible. Staying very still Neji could do, but he tended to look more bored than dangerous.

"We've no such hope," Neji said.

"Poor bastards," Temari said immediately. She stood up. "Shall we go?"

She paid the bill; Neji didn't bother on insisting on paying his share. He was the guest, dammit—and he had no desire to pay for eating a giant bug.

They set off again through the streets. "By the way," she said, when they turned into the street Neji's current apartment building stood in, "Gaara wanted me to ask what Naruto means to you." She smiled.

Neji choked. "_What?_"

"He wanted me to—"

Neji fought to keep his temper under control. He failed. "_Why would he want to know?_"

Temari's smile widened. "Like I'd know. So?"

To Temari's obvious disappointment, Neji had managed to school his expression. "I fail to see how it would interest him. Or you," he bit out, every word dripping with ice.

"Oh, well, it's obvious anyway," Temari said.

Neji glared. As his cheeks were burning red, the effect was ruined.

"It _is _obvious, you know," Temari said.

Neji opened the door to the building. "Shut _up, _Temari," he said.

"Obvious enough that even Gaara picked up on it," Temari continued, obviously not listening to him. "No surprise, though. You look at him like he's the most precious thing in the world."

This last was said in a softer tone, almost in wonderment. "He is," Neji told her. He couldn't help it. The words slid out like vomit.

Then he slammed the door in her face. The door shuddered in its frame and cracked. If asked, Neji decided he'd blame the crack on Temari. _Was _that _why she asked me to dinner? _he wondered, glaring at the door. The door offered up no answers. It simply sat in its frame, looking slightly pathetic. And broken.

He turned around.

… And saw Naruto standing on the stairs, a hand on the rail, looking at Neji with a frighteningly unreadable expression.

Neji felt his face heat; even his neck and ears began to warm.

_Shit, _he thought faintly. Mustering up every bit of calm and dignity he didn't really think he had, Neji walked up the stairs and past Naruto, who just looked at him with wide blue eyes.

By the time Neji had reached the last step, Naruto seemed to have shook himself out of his stupor. "Neji," he began.

"Don't," Neji said. "Just—don't."

"Don't talk to me like that, dammit!"

Neji ignored him. He entered their apartment, went to his bedroom, and locked the door.

Obviously, even Naruto knew how to lock-pick, but Neji didn't think he would. There were certain lines you didn't cross when you weren't away on a mission, when desperation wasn't forcing you to go to extreme lengths.

He reached for his backpack and pulled out a few scrolls, meaning to study. He almost feared he wouldn't be able to concentrate, but he found he could.

He lost himself in it soon enough, and was glad when he did.

* * *

The door crashed open.

Neji bolted up, instantly alert (but not instantly awake), hands snapping through seals.

It was only Naruto, though. Apparently he had decided to forgo picking the lock. Or maybe he really didn't know how to. Neji sighed, muscles relaxing, and rubbed his forehead with his fingers. _That's two doors we've broken._

"What," he said, "are you doing in my room?"

Naruto glared at him. "You've been avoiding me the whole day!" he said.

"I was sleeping," Neji replied, which was not entirely true, but Naruto didn't need to know that. "_Why _are you in here?"

"Because I'm sick of the way you've been avoiding me!" Naruto snapped.

Neji closed his eyes, took a deep, calming breath that did little to actually calm him, and opened his eyes again. _I do _not _want to deal with this, _he thought, and stepped around Naruto to get out of the room.

Except Naruto's hand shot out, quick as anything, and grabbed Neji firmly around the wrist.

"_Listen _to me, dammit!" he snapped.

"Let go," Neji said.

"_No_," Naruto said. Neji pulled his hand away, but Naruto wouldn't relent; he had more brute strength than Neji, and his grip was hard enough to leave bruises on Neji's skin. Naruto reached out with his other hand and grabbed Neji's right wrist and, with sudden force, pulled the white-eyed ninja close.

Neji's eyes widened. "What are you—"

"Will you _stop _acting like this!" Naruto yelled. "_Stop _acting so fucking _weird _around me!"

Neji stared.

"Ever since you kissed me you've been treating me like a _bomb_," Naruto continued, not registering Neji's wide-eyed, bewildered expression. "It's like you're running away from me! Like you're _scared _of me or something! And even when you talk to me you're so fucking _distant_, and you—"

For no apparent reason that Neji could see, Naruto shoved him back violently and let go. He stumbled back, and only a hand against the wall behind him saved him from falling onto the floor—except he slid slowly down to the floor, anyway, not quite able to process the raw _frustration _Naruto had thrown at him.

Neji's wrists ached; when he glanced at them he saw that, indeed, he had bruises. Slowly, he pulled himself to his feet.

Naruto's chest was heaving, his face flushed. He was staring at Neji with a frighteningly _intense _expression—as if they were in the middle of a battle, not a room in the middle of a foreign village.

"I... apologize, then," Neji said finally.

"That, right there! That's exactly what I'm talking about!" Naruto said, brandishing a finger at Neji.

Once again, Neji stared, baffled, feeling somehow that he was missing something.

Naruto was glaring at him. And then, quite suddenly, he threw up his hands and stomped out of the room, leaving Neji staring after him, bewildered and confused and rubbing the bruises on his wrists.

Before he could even stop and think about what had happened, the doorbell rang; Neji went to answer it, pulling on a long-sleeved shirt on as he walked, so that the bruises on his wrists would be hidden.

"Are you done fighting?" Temari said. "I heard yelling."

Neji wasn't sure if it had been a fight, exactly; it had started off as once, certainly, but it had become... something else. Maybe Naruto had just wanted to yell at him, but that just made it sound like an odd sort of therapy session.

"Anyway," Temari said, holding out a few scrolls, "you're to take these back to Leaf."

Neji took them.

"Tonight's probably the last night Gaara's free, by the way," she added, and Neji nodded.

"I'll tell Naruto," he said, and left to do exactly that. Temari shook her head and gave an exasperated sigh, muttering something about impossible, hard-headed men and soft Leaf shinobi.

"Thanks," Naruto said after Neji had stepped into his room to deliver Temari's message. "Guess this means we'll go back tonight."

Neji turned to go, but then he hesitated. He wanted to say _something_—to apologize, perhaps, but...

Neji opened his mouth, closed it again. Finally he said, "Remember, I owe you a spar when we get back."

Naruto blinked at him, obviously surprised, but then a grin spread across his face, wide and bright, and Neji inhaled sharply and deeply.

"Naruto," he said, "I lo—"

He stopped, shook his head; Naruto's grin was now replaced with a puzzled look, and somehow that made him feel a little sad.

"I look forward to it," he said instead, and ducked out.

When he stepped into the bathroom to collect his things, he was surprised to find a small smile on his face.

He stared at his reflection, watching the smile slowly fade.


	7. 7: naruto

**Complications  
**by Nilladriel

**7: naruto**

They packed. Naruto more-or-less threw everything into his bag. Neji took more care and folded his clothes, putting scrolls into their proper pouches and making sure the weapons were at the top, and so easy to pull out. Even so, he finished packing first—a fact which made Naruto role his eyes and grumble under his breath—and stood at the doorway, waiting.

Watching Naruto pack, Neji decided, was a curious thing. It was a wonder how he managed to make everything fit. Possibly he just used his ninja strength to force everything in.

Finally Naruto stood up, swinging his pack onto his back, and followed Neji out of the house and through the streets of Sand. They didn't talk, not until they reached Gaara's office.

Neji bowed formally; when he straightened, he found Gaara looking at him, his eyes alive and green. Neji had the impression that he was being studied or judged, like a particularly interesting specimen. After what seemed like minutes he broke his gaze and turned to Naruto, who looked a little nonplussed, and said, "I'll wait for you outside." Naruto and Gaara, after all, would probably like the chance to say goodbye to each other.

He left the room and closed the door behind him. Leaning against the wall, he crossed his arms and stared at the opposite wall.

He'd always been very good at waiting. A few passing people stared at him as they walked by, or at least at the headband on his forehead; most avoided his eyes.

He just stayed absolutely still, kept his gaze on the wall and, because Gaara and Naruto were taking their time, recited poems and scrolls and songs in his head.

Finally—_finally_—the door opened. "Are you a statue or something?" Naruto said, and Neji straightened, shooting him an annoyed look.

Something about Naruto's expression made him pause. He looked puzzled and a little distracted, as if a worry was gnawing at him. "Are you alright?" Neji asked. What had they been talking about?

"What?" Naruto said, and then: "Yeah, sure." He shook his head violently, as if that would shake away whatever was disturbing him, and readjusted his backpack. "Come on, let's go," he said, and walked off down the hallway, leaving Neji to trail after him with a bemused look on his face.

And Naruto didn't seem able to shake himself out of that strange mood, either. The first few days passed in complete and total silence. Naruto didn't even try to start conversations, as he usually did.

Neji was dismayed at how _happy _he was when, refilling their bottles at an oasis, Naruto looked up and said, "Could you pass me your water bottle?"

He was even more dismayed at how upset he was when Naruto didn't speak at all the rest of the day, or the day after that, when they finally reached the forest and when, by all rights, Naruto should be whooping and celebrating and being generally _obnoxious_.

Naruto dropped his bag, apparently a signal that they would stop and rest.

"Wait," Neji said. "The river we passed by on our way to Sand—we can stop there instead."

For a moment Naruto only stood there, blinking at him. And then he smiled. "Sure," he agreed, and Neji released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

They swam at the river, but Naruto didn't yell or splash about. He caught fish methodically, throwing the big, silvery, squirming things onto the riverbed for Neji to gut, clean, and cook, and then leaned against a rock and simply sat in the water as if he were at a hot springs.

Neji looked at him worriedly, but decided to concentrate on washing his hair and getting as much grease and sand from it as possible. Once satisfied, or as satisfied as he would get, he climbed out, readied the fish and set them cooking, and then sat back and braided his hair while he waited for dinner to cook.

Naruto seemed to be dozing; his eyes were half closed, his head tilted back, his still-wet headband sending drops of water down over his face.

Suddenly his gaze focused on Neji. "You're doing it again," he said.

Neji raised an eyebrow.

"Staring," Naruto elaborated.

The muscles in Neji's jaw tensed. Had he been _that _obvious...?

"Aw, damn," Naruto said, straightening and giving Neji an alarmed look. "Don't look so guilty, I just—it's just uncomfortable, sometimes."

Neji stared, blinked, and looked away. He heard Naruto sigh.

"Never mind," he said. "I shouldn't have mentioned it anyway. Um, is—is dinner ready?"

"Yes," Neji managed, and absolutely did not look when Naruto hauled himself out of the water. It didn't stop his imagination from supplying mental images, though.

"You've been quiet lately," Neji said, because he couldn't think of anything else to talk about. "Is something bothering you?"

Naruto looked guilty. "No!" he said, and then, when Neji looked at him with narrowed eyes that seemed to glow: "Well, a little."

"What is it?"

For a while Naruto didn't say anything. He just sat and chewed.

"That night," he said, just as Neji was about to give him another verbal poke, "when you said, um..."

Neji waited.

"When Temari was at the door," he said. "And she said that you looked at me like..."

Oh.

... Oh.

Neji felt his face heat.

"Does that bother you?"

"No!" Naruto said, straightening and looking at Neji with an alarmed expression. "I mean, it does, kind of, but it doesn't, I mean—not in _that _way—"

He growled, a sound that made Neji startle. "I really wish you would stop looking like that!"

This was as aggravating and confusing as the time Naruto had stormed into his room.

"Never mind!" Naruto yelled, throwing his hands up and waving his fish around. "I—just—aargh!"

"I see," Neji said carefully, even though he didn't. Naruto just looked at him moodily and savagely bit into his fish.

"Can I have your fish?" Naruto said, probably seeing that Neji wasn't too eager to finish his dinner. Without a word, Neji handed it over, before dragging out his bedroll, not quite sure what to say—or think—and quite certain there wasn't much to say anyway.

* * *

"It doesn't bother me," Naruto announced the next morning as he wrestled his bedroll into a vaguely circular shape and tied it down. He looked tired, which indicated that he'd perhaps stayed up late thinking.

Neji, who was swiftly re-braiding his hair—there was absolutely no way he was going to tie it off like usual, not when it'd gone _curly_ after he'd left it wet and braided—carefully took the time to finish what he was doing. Only then did he let himself think about what Naruto was talking about.

"What?"

"What bothers me," Naruto went on, in the tone of one who has come to an important realization and is going to tell it to _someone_, dammit, "is the way you always act so guilty about it. Like it's _wrong_."

Neji didn't look at him.

"I just don't think love is wrong," Naruto said to his back.

He took a few steps forward, almost leaped up to the trees, and stopped. "That... was surprisingly mature."

"Shut up." But he could hear the grin in Naruto's voice. "I mean it, you know."

Neji looked up at the sky, or at least the little patches of it the thick canopy occasionally allowed through. He saw a bird, swift and little, and then it was gone, swallowed up by the branches and leaves. His lips twitched.

"Thank you," he said.

"Sure," Naruto said. There was a pause. "After we get the scrolls to the old hag, do you want to have lunch with me?"

That, Neji thought, sounded rehearsed. "Dinner," he corrected.

"Huh?"

"Dinner," Neji repeated, his tone softening. "We'll arrive during the evening."

"Shut up," Naruto said.

Neji glanced at him, smiling. "You're paying."

For a moment Naruto only looked at him—and then he shook his head, grinned, and leapt up to the trees. "Like hell I am!" he called down, and sped away before Neji had a chance to reply.

* * *

"You seem happy."

It was Hinata, bearing tea. Neji had come home barely thirty minutes ago and had just stepped out of the shower, and he was toweling his blessedly clean hair dry.

"Do I?" he asked, accepting a cup.

"You do." She smiled. "I take it the trip went well?"

Neji looked at her sharply. She'd sounded smug right then. Hinata just wasn't the sort of person to sound smug. She just _wasn't_.

But she had.

"You set it up, didn't you?" he asked.

She didn't answer, just looked at him innocently with her big, pale eyes, which were a shade darker than his own—almost a light, light lavender. "So did it?" she said, obviously choosing to ignore his question, although the way her cheeks went red gave him answer enough. She never had been too good at controlling her expression.

"It went... fine," he said—"fine", in this case, meaning something like "disaster." "You shouldn't meddle with my affairs."

Hinata looked guilty then, absurdly so, even if she tried her best to look defiant. Neji studied her for a few seconds, and then decided abruptly that it hadn't been _just _her—after all, Ino had always liked sticking her nose where it wasn't wanted, and Sakura probably wouldn't object to a little bit of match-making. It didn't make him feel any less irritated, though.

"Did it?" Hinata said. "I'm glad. Because you really do seem happier now."

Neji nodded and sipped his tea. Perhaps he was. Perhaps Hinata was just being hopeful. "Tell Ino and Sakura that they're to keep out of my life," he said.

Hinata flushed. "A-actually," she said, "it was Ten-Ten who came up with the idea..."

Neji massaged the bridge of his nose. He was going to _kill _her.

... Later. After dinner.

"Where are you going?" Hinata asked, when he drained the rest of his tea and stood up.

"Out," he said. "To dinner."

"Oh," she said, and, after studying him for a moment, smiled. "I hope dinner goes well!"

Sometimes, he thought, Hinata was far too perceptive.

* * *

As Neji was walking through the main gates of the Hyuuga compound, he saw Naruto waiting for him; his hair was damp, and he was wearing a black shirt along with his usual, too-bright orange pants. The necklace he always wore seemed to glitter against the blackness of his shirt.

"No ramen," Neji said immediately. Naruto made a face at him.

"I... kind of wasn't planning on ramen, anyway," Naruto admitted, pushing off from the wall. "If you don't mind eating at my place, Sakura brought a ton of food and her cooking's really, really good. Come on."

Surprised, Neji followed. Naruto made small talk as they walked, regaling Neji with bits of gossip he truthfully didn't care about, but it was nice just hearing Naruto talk, even if the light tone of his voice seemed forced. Sometimes he'd glance at Neji, expression almost scared—and then he'd look away before Neji had a chance to really make sure.

_He's planning something._

He nodded his head, offering a few comments and sometimes smiling; sometimes Naruto smiled back, and to Neji's relief by the time they were climbing up the stairs to Naruto's apartment it seemed Naruto felt a little less awkward. Neji could tell by the way he moved: he was a little less tense, and his smiles were just more _genuine_.

Naruto unlocked and opened the door. He switched on the lights, and then went around throwing all the windows open. The night air rushed in, sweet and too cool. "I just miss the cold," Naruto explained when he saw the way Neji raised an eyebrow in question. Neji just nodded.

Sakura _had _been over; the kitchen table was covered with bags and containers full of food. "She's trying to get me to eat less ramen," Naruto said, grinning. "So you can eat whatever."

They ended up eating in the living room, Naruto sprawled on the big couch, occasionally waving his chopsticks as he talked and spilling little drops of soup everywhere. He was eating ramen. Neji had settled on rice, figuring Sakura would appreciate her food not going to waste.

"Sakura's not going to be happy that you're eating ramen," Neji said.

"Whatever," Naruto said, and grinned.

There was a pause, during which Naruto went to get more food. Neji poked at his rice, and then sighed, putting the bowl down onto the table. "Naruto," he said when the blond ninja returned.

"Yeah?" Naruto said.

"Why did you ask me to dinner?"

And Neji saw it again—that almost-scared expression. And then it was gone, replaced by determination: a set jaw, eyes slightly narrowed, a corner of his lips turned up. "I wanted to."

"You normally drag Sasuke out after missions."

"Sasuke can wait. He'll understand," Naruto said, and then: "Just eat you dinner, Neji."

Neji obeyed silently. After a moment Naruto went back to talking, and it was as if the last few minutes had never happened.

Afterwards Neji volunteered to do the dishes, while Naruto put away the food Sakura had brought, meaning he just opened random cupboards and shoved the containers inside. Probably he'd forget about them by next morning.

Neji rinsed the last bowl and put it on the drying rack, turned around, and stopped, because Naruto was standing _right there_—

"Let's go spar," Naruto said, standing unnecessarily close, and Neji slowly nodded, his face as blank as stone. Naruto smelled like cheap soap and cheaper shampoo. He radiated warmth and heat, even as the cold wind rushed in and curled itself around their faces, their hair.

And then Neji stepped around Naruto, heading for the door, his hands shoved in his pockets. He released his breath, slowly and calmly, and then turned his head. "Well?" he said.

Naruto grinned and followed.

* * *

"Let's stop," Neji said, an hour and a half later. Without bothering to wait for a reply he turned and walked out of the clearing and into the greenery; there was a stream nearby. He could see it through some trees.

"Oi," Naruto said, a little belatedly. "Why are we stopping?"

Neji snorted and dropped to his knees, switching his Byakugan off, and suddenly Naruto disappeared from his vision. He cupped water in his hands and splashed his face, washing the sweat off. "It's no use sparring if our hearts aren't in it," he replied, turning his head to watch Naruto approach the stream as well.

"I guess," Naruto said, and brushed his hair back with damp hands. He was close; their shoulders were brushing.

Neji turned and abruptly kissed him.

It wasn't like the first time, possibly because he hadn't just spent nearly half an hour agonizing about whether or not he should do it.

Naruto froze. Neji didn't care. He felt very, very drunk.

He felt very, very _alive_.

Naruto's lips weren't particularly soft. In fact, they were chapped, rough underneath Neji's, and he smelled of sweat and dirt. The kiss lasted only a brief moment—not even a second—but when Neji finally pulled away he felt as if it had lasted an eternity.

He liked the expression on Naruto's face. His eyes were impossibly wide. His cheeks were impossibly red.

"What the _fuck_, Neji?" Naruto said.

Neji licked his lips, slowly, aware that his cheeks were burning as well. "Sorry," he said, but before he could even get up Naruto's hand shot out. "Wait," Naruto said, sounding and looking panicked.

Neji looked down. His wrist was going to be permanently bruised at this rate.

He waited.

"Um," Naruto said, and it occurred to Neji that he probably hadn't even thought about what he'd been doing. Naruto was like that. Impulsive. Very bad at planning.

Also, his eyes were very, very blue.

"This is really hard to do with you staring at me like that," Naruto finally said. Startled, Neji blinked and shifted his gaze away, although there really wasn't much to look at. Trees, for one. And the stream. No birds, though, considering it was a few hours after dark.

"You know what?" Naruto suddenly said. "Never mind."

Suddenly Naruto's other hand was there, at Neji's cheek, turning Neji's head and tilting it up, and then he was leaning forward, and—

_Hmm,_ thought the small, small part of Neji that was capable of thought.

It wasn't much of a kiss, just lips meeting lips, but it sent an electric jolt through him just the same. "What?" he breathed.

"Shut up," Naruto ordered, a little irritably. His breath was warm, and it ghosted across Neji's lips and chin and nose.

They kissed again. Neji didn't know much about kisses, this being his forth one. He hesitantly brought his hand up—the one that wasn't being gripped to death by Naruto—and put it on the blond's neck. It felt strange there, but nice, so he let it stay.

Naruto, who predictably knew what he was doing—or at least knew more than Neji—nudged Neji's lips open, and—

Suddenly there was a tongue inside his mouth.

It was... wet. Very wet, considering the amount of saliva involved. Messy, too. And, well, strange, because—tongue! In his mouth!

But it also felt very nice, so as soon as they'd broken apart for a bit of air Neji leaned in for another kiss.

A part of him—the small, ignored part that had gone, _hmm_—was wondering why Naruto was kissing him. Why _now_.

The rest of him didn't care, because Naruto's tongue was in his mouth, and Naruto's fingers were wrapped firmly around his wrist, and Naruto's hand was on his cheek and stroking softly, and each movement was causing little sparks to dance on his skin and it felt—messy. Messy and nice.

Neji tightened his grip on Naruto's hair for a moment, and then let go.

"Not that I'm complaining," he said, panting slightly, his lips tingling. "But—why?"

Naruto shifted. "Why not?" he said, looking defiant. At Neji's _look_, he blushed. "I've been thinking about it, okay?" he said. "Ever since you kissed me. And, you know. I thought maybe I didn't mind as much as I thought I did."

"Ah," Neji said.

"Gaara helped," Naruto went on. "Sakura, too. They talked to me, basically. Made me think about things."

He shifted uncomfortably. "Want to kiss again?" he asked.

Neji closed his eyes, breathed in, breathed out, opened them.

Leaned in.

Kissed.

Dug his fingers into Naruto's hair and couldn't help but smile while he sucked lightly on Naruto's tongue and liking the way he felt—free, like a bird.

* * *

Later, while he was slipping through the halls of the Hyuuga compound, he saw Hinata, waiting by his room.

She smiled at him and said, "I take dinner went well."

He looked at her, blinked, and slowly nodded. He knew he had a smile on his face, that he'd had one ever since he and Naruto had parted. He couldn't get it off. He didn't want to, anyway.

"I'm glad," Hinata said, managing somehow to look infinitely pleased and yet a little sad. She turned around and ghosted down the hall.

Neji brought the tips of his fingers to his lips. He felt... giddy. _Giddy_.

Oh, well.

"I'm glad, too," he told Hinata, even though Hinata had already turned the corner and was probably already walking the path to the main building. He entered his room and crossed over to his bathroom.

His lips were swollen, and Naruto's hand had left five smudges of dirt on his cheek.

Also, he was _definitely _smiling. And he looked dazed—not at all how a Hyuuga should be acting. How a _ninja _should be acting.

He didn't care.


	8. 8: after

**Complications**  
by Nilladriel

**8: after**

Ten-Ten, Lee, and Neji definitely weren't hiding. And they definitely weren't huddling together.

Also, they were definitely, complete, absolutely _not _scared of Gai.

Even if he _had _tried to give them a lecture on safe sex.

How old did he think they were, anyway?

"This is all your fault," Ten-Ten hissed at him. Neji ignored her. There was an elbow digging into his stomach, and Lee's breath smelled terrifyingly minty. Neji hoped Lee would have the sense to keep his mouth shut; the shine of his teeth would probably give their position away.

"Are you listening to me?" Ten-Ten hissed again.

"No!" Neji hissed back. "Be _quiet_, Ten-Ten."

"Uh, Neji? Ten-Ten?" Lee said, and gestured. It occurred to Neji to wonder why Lee was hiding with them. He adored Gai's speeches.

Hmm. Apparently even Lee had his limits.

"Guys!" Lee said, tone more alarmed, and gestured more wildly. The other two craned their necks and looked up.

They saw a flash of green and the shine of impossibly white teeth. Gai descended upon them like a vulture—a big, green, _shiny _vulture.

"There's no need to be embarrassed!" he boomed. "It is a perfectly natural pr—"

There were three _poofs _as they immediately fled.

* * *

Three hours later and five close calls later, Neji found himself outside Naruto's window.

He hesitated, but now that he was here it seemed cowardly to run again. He hadn't seen Naruto for three days. Ninja were surprisingly good at avoiding other people when they put their minds to it, and this time it wasn't just Neji avoiding Naruto; they were avoiding each other.

With a resigned sigh, Neji knocked.

Naruto gave him a weird stare as he opened the window. It obviously hadn't been cleaned in months, if not years; finally he just forced it open, causing cracks to appear in the glass. "Neji? Front doors exist for a _reason_," he said, as Neji slipped inside.

Ah. Right. Neji nodded. For a moment they only stood there, looking at each other, before Naruto suddenly grinned.

"You had lunch yet?"

"No," Neji said. "I've been running from Gai."

"Oh." Pause. "Want to go out for lunch?"

"No," Neji said immediately. Before Naruto even had time to look disappointed he added, "We're staying in here."

Naruto's grin, if possible, widened. He walked towards Neji, his steps slow and deliberate. "That scared of Gai?"

Neji licked his lips as he watched Naruto come closer. "If you knew why I was running," he said, "you would be, too." He paused, because Naruto was _right there _and his brain never seemed to work as well whenever Naruto was close. "I thought you wanted lunch?"

"Lunch can wait," Naruto said. Neji had only a second to be overcome by awe—_Is Naruto turning down food?_—before the grin becoming predatory, and suddenly he was being kissed.

Neji tried to remember why he'd been avoiding Naruto. He failed. Spectacularly. "It can?" he said.

There was a pause. Naruto studied Neji with a serious expression, his blue eyes almost dark. "Neji?" he said finally.

"Yes?" Neji managed.

"We're in my bedroom right now," Naruto said, tone conversational. "Lunch. Can. Wait." His cheeks were red, at least, which meant he wasn't as entirely cool with the situation as his even tone suggested.

Still, he was more in control than Neji, which rankled. "Ah," he said.

"Yeah," Naruto said, pushing Neji against the wall. His expression was intoxicating.

Suddenly Neji curled his fingers around Naruto's arms and pushed him gently back. "Why don't we have lunch now."

Naruto stared.

Neji closed his eyes, opened them, and stared back. "Lunch," he repeated. "I'd rather not fool around on an empty stomach."

"... Okay. D'you know how weird that sounded?" Naruto followed him, obviously nonplussed. "How long have you been running from Gai?"

"This morning. I missed breakfast."

The cupboards were still full. Neji sent a mental note of thanks to Sakura and pulled out some chicken. She made surprisingly good fried chicken.

"Neji?"

His tone was hurt. When Neji looked up, he saw that Naruto's expression was equivalent to a puppy. A _kicked _puppy.

He sighed. "I don't like losing control," he murmured. "And I _am _hungry."

He turned back to the cupboards. Hopefully he'd be able to find some soy sauce.

"Fine," Naruto announced to the room. Or maybe to Neji's back. "I'm not asking you to have sex, you know."

Neji whirled around, or at least tried to. Instead, he banged his head on the cupboard door and stumbled back as stars exploded in front of his eyes.

Naruto was instantly there. "Shit," he said. "Are you alright?"

Neji glared at the cupboard door sullenly. "I'm fine," he said.

Naruto, for his part, was laughing, obviously not guilty at all once it'd been made clear that Neji's nose wasn't broken—just his pride.

Neji glared at him until he calmed down. It took a while.

"Sorry," he said. "But it _was _funny." Pause. "I meant what I said, you know, but if you just want to eat lunch and hang out, that's cool, too."

It took Neji a moment to register the abrupt change in subject, and another to figure out what he _meant_; when he finally did, he flushed. "Do you know why I was running from Gai?" he said, when he trusted his voice to be steady.

"No," Naruto said. "Why?"

He turned around and picked up the chicken pieces he'd dropped, studying them with a wary eye. Naruto's floor wasn't _that _dirty. It was fine to eat them, probably.

... Probably.

"He thought it was time to give us a... talk. About safe sex."

The effect was instantaneous. Naruto's face paled. "That's—" he began, and stopped, apparently too horrified for words.

Neji smirked. "Indeed," he said. "So I'll be staying here a while."

"Huh?"

Naruto stared at him.

Neji walked around him, taking a cautious bite. The chicken tasted fine, so he guessed that it was safe to eat. After all, Naruto _did _clean his floor once in a while, right? Right.

Naruto followed Neji to the couch with a dazed expression, which made Neji smirk. "In fact," he announced, settling back onto the couch. "I might as well stay the night. To be safe."

"To be safe," Naruto echoed, and shook his head. "I'm sure as hell not complaining."

He sat next to Neji and, after a moment, slung an arm around the black-haired ninja's shoulders. Neji let him, throwing the blond a smile, after a few seconds the smile was returned with a bright grin.

* * *

"Neji."

Neji looked up, looked back down. "Sasuke," he greeted.

Sasuke stopped a few feet away from him. He was smiling. It was, Neji decided, an expression that didn't fit Sasuke all that much. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Congratulations," Sasuke said simply.

Neji didn't reply, only frowning at the papers in his lap. He hated reports.

Sasuke sat next to him, stealing his bottle of water. Neji looked at him, marveling at how different Sasuke looked in the sunlight. Pale and strange and almost alien. "Thank you," he said.

Sasuke smirked at him. "It looks like I don't have to kill you after all," he said. Hah. As if he could. "Naruto's been very happy."

Neji raised an eyebrow. "What is he to you?"

Sasuke looked away, hesitated. "Everything," he said finally. "The reason I stay."

Neji frowned. "Are you—"

"No." The word was surprisingly gentle and reassuring. "We're like brothers." Sasuke smirked. "Better than brothers," he decided.

Neji nodded and wrote something down. After a while, Sasuke stood up.

"We should spar sometime," Neji said, not looking up.

"Sure," Sasuke replied, sounding amused. About to walk away, he suddenly turned back. "You're good for each other," he said.

Neji thought about kisses, and Naruto's smile, and afternoons spent eating ramen and sparring. He didn't say anything, just smiled, because he thought that yeah, they were.

_fin_


End file.
